IN PERSON: Garden manager blends spirituality, home improvement

On seven acres of hillside and creek bed southwest of Escondido,
Alden Hough's passion for living things has already transformed
swaths of his family's property into productive gardens,
water-saving basins and revived native habitat.

But the 47-year-old garden manager at the Sky Mountain Institute
in Harmony Grove is not satisfied just to improve his own way of
life. As he told me on Thursday, his goal is to educate others
about a fast-growing movement known as "permaculture."

As an evangelist of this philosophy, Hough is gardening with an
eye to the future, a nod to the past, and a hope that folks will
embrace better ways of using their property.

His take on how humans should interact with other living
organisms is often packaged in metaphysical language, but it is
grounded in age-old techniques that seem to be scientifically
sound.

For example, one of his pet projects is a system of capturing
rainwater by diverting runoff into a series of terraces and basins,
where the water soaks into the soil and stays there for months,
nourishing shrubs and trees that would otherwise need
irrigation.

Described one way ---- as Hough did when explaining the methods
of permaculture ---- such an experiment could be "about living with
the cycles and energies in nature." From another perspective, it
could be about cheaper water bills.

Hough's motivations are undeniably spiritual.

A graduate of Escondido High School who traveled extensively and
once pursued ordination as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Hough
described an encounter he once had with a Hindu spiritual teacher
in India.

"He told me, 'Everything's God ---- you're God,'" he recalled.
"I thought that was an amazing concept, and then I said, 'OK, if
everything's God, how would I live my life?' I thought, well,
obviously, I would treat my brother and sister human beings better.
But also, what about the plants and animals, and the soil, and the
minerals and everything like that? Should we be treating them
better?"

Not everyone will relate to that view of nature, but it's hard
to argue with the results of Hough's methods: This time of year, he
said, around three-quarters of his family's diet comes from the
garden.

In fenced and manicured patches on the hillside were tomatoes,
eggplant, kale, beets, winter squash, blueberries, peaches, olives,
onions, garlic, corn and dozens of other foods.

Hough's mother, Laura Mitchell, founded the nonprofit Sky
Mountain Institute in 1981, and today it serves as an "educational,
research and training center," according to her website,
www.skymountain.org.

On Thursday, as the air grew warmer and the family dog, Bodhi,
slept at our feet, a small group of aspiring psychologists were
chatting between rows of Hough's vegetables.

Beyond the spiritual and environmental benefits of permaculture,
Hough sees solutions to major human problems such as global food
shortages.